Arthur Charles Ducat of IrelandAppointed from Illinois, Second Lieutenant,
12th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 2 May 1861First Lieutenant and Adjutant, 11 May 1861Captain, 1 August 1861Major, 24 September 1861Lieutenant Colonel, 1 April 1862Lieutenant Colonel, 14 November 1862 to 19
February 1864Breveted Colonel and Brigadier General of
Volunteers, 13 March 1864, for faithful and meritorious servicesHonorably discharged 19 February 1864Died 29 January 1896

NOTE: His son, Arthur
Charles Ducat Jr., Colonel, United States Army, is buried in the same
gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery.

General Arthur Charles Ducat was born in Dublin,
Ireland, on 24 February 1830. His father, Mungo Moray Ducat, was a gentleman
who traced his lineage from a very ancient Highland family, renowned in
the annals of Scotland. He was a native of Cupar Angus, but in early life
removed to New Lawn, County Dublin, Ireland, where he also possessed large
estates. His wife, Dorcas Julia Atkinson, was born in County Armagh, Ireland,
and died in Downer's Grove, Illinois, in November, 1889, aged eighty-six
years. Her father was an Englishman, of Cambridgeshire.

Arthur C. Ducat was educated at private schools
in his native city, and at the age of nineteen years came to America with
the intention of becoming a civil engineer. He pursued that profession
for some years on important railroad lines and other public works. This
occupation was abandoned when he was tendered the position of Secretary
and General Surveyor of the Board of Underwriters of Chicago, which position
he accepted and occupied until the opening of the Civil War. In the mean
time he began to manifest a keen interest in the affairs of the city, and
organized, drilled and disciplined the Citizens' Fire Brigade, a semi-military
and armed body of citizens. Their duties were to attend fires and save
and guard property and life. This action also had a deeper meaning, for
Ducat had resolved to abolish the old "volunteer" fire department and introduce
a new one in its place on a paid and disciplined basis, employing steam
fire-engines. He was obliged to protect the first engines brought to Chicago
from the demonstrations and attacks of mobs, incited by the bad element
of the volunteer department, which he did by the aid of his fire brigade.
He wrote the ordinances establishing and substituting steam engines for
the old hand machines, and enlisted the vote of the Common Council to adopt
it.

Upon the beginning of hostilities between the
North and the South, he was one of the first to offer substantial aid in
support of the Government. His taste had led him to the study of military
history and science, and he knew as much of the art of war as a lieutenant
fresh from West Point. The roar of the first guns had scarcely ceased before
he had raised and offered – first to the State of Illinois and then to
the National Government – a corps of three hundred engineers, sappers and
miners. Many of these men were professionals who had seen service and understood
the details of field and permanent fortifications, and works connected
therewith, the rapid construction of bridges, roads, etc. The Government
was not aware, however, of the struggle before it and perhaps thought that
engineers would not be necessary. So Ducat was chagrined and disappointed
by the rejection of what he foresaw would be a much-needed service. Notwithstanding
this refusal, he immediately enlisted as a private, and in April, 1861,
became a member of the Twelfth Illinois Infantry. He was without political,
governmental or family influence, and resolved to do his duty and depend
upon his merits for promotion. Although a good horseman, he selected the
infantry arm of the service, as he believed it would do most of the fighting.
His regiment was among the first that seized the important strategic point
of Cairo and supported General Lyon in taking possession of the arsenal
at St. Louis. It was not long before Ducat's military acquirements and
capabilities were appreciated. Within a month he was commissioned Second
Lieutenant, and afterwards appointed Adjutant of the regiment. Upon the
expiration of the three months for which he had enlisted, he was again
enrolled for three years in the same regiment, and appointed Captain of
Company A. The Twelfth formed a part of the brigade that first occupied
the sacred soil of Kentucky, taking possession of Paducah in August, 1861.
Here he was promoted to be Major of his regiment, and in the month of April
following, at Fort Donelson, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
In August, 1862, he was appointed to the command of the grand guards, pickets
and outposts for the Army of the Tennessee. When Major-General Ord was
appointed to the command, Ducat was ordered to his staff, and when Major-General
Rosecrans relieved General Ord, Ducat was attached to the staff of the
former. At Rosecrans' great battle of Corinth and the subsequent pursuit
of the enemy, he served as acting Chief of Staff and Inspector-General,
and so conducted himself as to receive the warmest congratulations of his
superior officers, not only for bravery, but for efficiency, making most
important suggestions as to movements, and carrying them out with great
success.

Subsequently he was directed by the general
in command to conduct a flag of truce to the enemy at Holly Springs, Mississippi,
distance of over seventy-five miles, through a country infested with a
superior force of guerrillas and the enemy's cavalry, who were not to be
depended upon to recognize a flag of truce. He succeeded, and displayed
as much tact and discretion in the important negotiations entrusted to
him as in the field. He was afterward detailed to arrange with General
Burnside the Knoxville campaign, representing General Rosecrans on that
occasion.

When Major-General Rosecrans took command of
the forces known as the Army of the Ohio (which subsequently became the
Army of the Cumberland), Colonel Ducat was ordered to accompany General
Rosecrans and named as acting Chief of Staff and acting Inspector-General.
In this important and responsible position he rendered the most efficient
service in re-organizing, equipping, disciplining and drilling the army,
in raising the siege of Nashville, and in opening the railway from that
city to Louisville. He was afterward appointed by the War Department Inspector-General
of the Fourteenth Army Corps, and after the battle of Stone River and the
organization of the Army and Department of the Cumberland, he was appointed
Inspector-General of that army and department (the most military of the
staff positions), in addition to which he had charge of the grand guards,
pickets and outposts, and the organization of the signal corps of the army.
When it is recollected that Ducat was a self-educated soldier, his selection
from among the many able and experienced men who had made war their profession
is a distinction indicating a high degree of merit. He organized the Bureau
of the Inspector-General on a system substantially new, but adapted to
secure the greatest efficiency and discipline of a great army in the field.
At first his strict and rigid exactions rendered him unpopular, but as
soon as results began to manifest themselves in the greater efficiency
of the troops, their sanitary condition and military spirit, he became,
among officers and men, one of the most popular officers of that army.
He formulated and put in practice a system of picketing and outputting
an army which highly distinguished him. When General Rosecrans was relieved
and Maj.-Gen. George H. Thomas took command, Ducat was ordered to the staff
of the latter, in which capacity he served until he left the service at
the close of the war, respected and beloved by all.

Many of these facts are obtained from an article
written by General Rosecrans, who also said of him: "I regard him
as an extraordinary man, an excellent tactician, a soldier by nature; so
much so, that he never exacted the credit he easily merited, nor the promotion
given to less able and more plodding men."

The following is from the pen of General Grant:
"His services have been very valuable and have been highly appreciated."
General Thomas wrote: "One of the most able and useful of the army staff
and cannot well be spared." General Sheridan characterized him as "an officer
of high standing and distinguished merit." Another writer on the war says:
"Ducat was early distinguished for his thorongh [sic] knowledge of military
details, his organizing powers and his executive ability; but especially
for his sleepless vigilance and activity, that mastered all details of
topography and the movement of hostile armies."

The late President Garfield, Quartermaster
General Meigs, Major Generals Ord, Palmer, and others, addressed the war
department, recommending the higher promotion of Ducat, but the lack of
influence at headquarters, together with his own indifference regarding
promotion, seemed to prevent him from receiving appointments to higher
commands. He was always fully contented in any capacity in the army to
which he was appointed.

Soon after the close of hostilities, the Home
Insurance Company, of New York, appointed him to superintend its business
in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, and shortly afterward he became its general
agent in Chicago. His career as an active underwriter has been eminently
successful, his popularity and acquaintance throughout the West being of
great advantage to his employers. The firm of Ducat & Lyon, of which
he is the head, carries on a general fire-insurance business. The business
under his control has always been successful and profitable. One of the
standard works of America is "Ducat's Practice of Fire Underwriting," which
he brought out in 1857.

Before the great fire he was chairman of the
committee that organized the celebrated Fire Insurance Patrol of Chicago.
He remained chairman of the Patrol Committee five years after the fire,
and infused into it the esprit du corps and military spirit that have characterized
it and brought about the extension of the five limits to be co-extensive
with the city limits – an important work, adroitly managed in the face
of great opposition. He was chairman of the committee which framed the
new building law after the great fire, and, in conjunction with Frederick
Baumann, wrote the most elaborate and well-digested building law in this
or any other country. The Board of Local Fire Underwriters was organized
on the basis of his recommendation, in the capacity of committee for that
purpose, to which position he was appointed soon after the great fire.

In 1873 there was a movement in Illinois to
reorganize the National Guard of the State. The advice of General Ducat
on this subject was sought, and the military code upon which the present
efficient Guard was organized is the product of his brain and pen, for
which he was made major general and its commander. In 1886 he was elected
commander of the Illinois Commandery of the military order of the Loyal
Legion. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and of the Masonic
order, being identified with Apollo Commandery, Knights Templar; and is
a member of the Chicago Club. He has ever been a stanch Republican, though
never a candidate for civil office. He was married to Miss Mary Lyon, daughter
of William Lyon, Esq., of Bedford, Pennsylvania. Her death occurred in
Chicago, October 26, 1890, at the age of forty-three years.
In 1892 he was married to Miss Alice Jane Soutar, daughter of P. J. Soutar,
an eminent lawyer of Dunfermline, Scotland. Six of General Ducat's children
survive. Arthur C., Jr., a graduate of West Point, is a Lieutenant in the
United States Army; Kate, the second child, is the wife of C. P. Stivers,
of Chicago; and Mary, Reginal, Elizabeth and Alice complete the family,
whose members are communicants of the Episcopal Church, in which General
Ducat was reared.
DUCAT, ARTHUR CCOL INF USAVETERAN SERVICE DATES: UnknownDATE OF DEATH: 03/08/1913DATE OF INTERMENT: UnknownBURIED AT: SECTION 1 SITE LOT 102-DARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY